In our series of posts on The Last Battle we have been trying to identify the true enemy to which Narnia eventually falls. The superficial answer is that Narnia fell due to internal strife caused by Shift’s false Aslan which was apprehended by Calormene as a way to gain power. The enemy is then the anti-Christ who in fact brings ruin and destruction at the hands of Narnia’s sworn enemy.
This answer alone, however, raises significant questions especially, why did the Narnians follow the anti-Christ and transgress the sin of apostasy? How could they not see that Shift was out for his own physical desires and had no spiritual aims whatsoever? In our previous post we suggested that the situation, especially in northern Narnian, had, for many years, been one of upheaval and unrest. Bandits held sway, and a Narnian king lost his life in battle. While his young successor carried onward and eventually brought peace to the region, he revealed himself to be immature and unable to provide the people with the stability they craved. Shift realized that Aslan could provide such stability, even (or especially) an Aslan that behaves as a brutal dictator.
It is now time to turn to the Calormenes. In a previous post we explained why the Calormene resemblance to the Ottoman Empire is a red-herring and is used to create a King Arthur-like atmosphere in which Narnia represents Jerusalem. In addition, we saw that the true war between Narnia and Calomene is on the relationship between the nobility and the common folk. We are thus left trying to characterize Tash. As we see in The Last Battle, Tash is not a false God constructed by the Calormenes, but is instead an actual being.
In our next post we will attempt to determine the nature of Tash.
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